Skip to main content

Life's So Fragile




ON Friday 3 January 2025, my dear friend HT Long sent me a video, with this line:

"Ht Long Sings a Beautiful Song "Who Am I" specially for you  and your preccius family."

        Along with this are his usual daily greetings ...



Ht Long's 2 lovely young fans in Klang after his Concert

    The timestamp showed that it was 0403, meaning by about 4am, he was already awake. 

Till we meet again, my friend!

    Little did I know that it was his last day in this world. By evening, I was informed by his wife, Suzie that HT Long has returned home to be with the Lord. 

Good morning! I am Suzie, HT's wife. I saw your msg yesterday, n maybe you didnt know yet. So sorry to inform that HT had gone home to be with Our Lord on the 3/1/25  evening. Thanks for being his friend all this while.🙏

    It is sad that I was not able to attend his funeral wake. I have known him for so long now, and having featured him a number of times when I was stringing for the New Straits Times and Malay Mail. 

    When I told him that I was getting married at last, he volunteered to sing for my wedding dinner. Together with the late Alan Zechariah, our relatives had a fabulous time, dancing to the songs popularised by the late Elvis Presley. It goes without saying that my aunts and uncles were from that generation, and I could not believe it when I saw them coming out to dance! 



    HT has always been very obliging. When I told him that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wanted to sing with him, he immediately obliged. In fact, I did not even know whether it was Anwar who responded to my email back in 2013 during Nurul Izzah's ceramah. His answer, as usual, was a very short reply, "Yes" to my question, "Would you like HT Long, our Elvis Presley of Malaysia to sing along with you during Nurul's ceramah?" I was totally unknown to him in those days.












 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My heart will go on

  It must be at least twenty years ago when I first encountered Malaysia’s very own Stevie Wonder, Colin Ng Soon Beng. It was during Chinese New Year, at the home of a mutual friend. Colin was only about ten years old then. His mother introduced him to me as a “special child.” She said, “Pick a song. We’ll play it for Colin to listen, and he will play it back for you.” I chose My Heart Will Go On from Titanic. To this day, Colin still remembers that it was the song he played for me. Born with multiple disabilities, Colin’s journey has been anything but ordinary. Being visually impaired, he could not learn music the way most children do. Yet God blessed him with an extraordinary gift: a razor-sharp ear. He could identify the brand of a photocopier or the model of a car simply by hearing its sound. His mother, Janet, devoted her life to nurturing his talent. After losing her husband when Colin was 24, she became not only a mother but also a father figure, chauffeur, and companion in ...

DALAM EMPAT BAHASA/ IN FOUR LANGUAGES/在四种语言中/ நான்கு மொழிகளில்: A Piece of Good News Worth Celebratinng

Akhirnya, anak Sarawak ini — Soliman Wan — telah menerima kewarganegaraannya! Dilahirkan 52 tahun lalu di kawasan pedalaman Sarawak, bukan sesuatu yang mudah bagi ayah dan ibunya untuk ke bandar bagi mendaftarkan kelahriannya. Tambahan pula, pada waktu itu, ramai penduduk di Sabah dan Sarawak kurang memahami kepentingan dokumen rasmi sebagai bukti status kewarganegaraan. Soliman dilahirkan pada tahun 1974, ketika Malaysia baru berusia 13 tahun. Kefahaman mengenai kewarganegaraan masih belum begitu meluas, terutamanya dalam kalangan masyarakat yang tercicir daripada arus pembangunan dan sistem pendidikan negara. Kehidupan Soliman sebagai seorang pastor penuh dengan cabaran. Tanpa kewarganegaraan, beliau tidak dapat memiliki kad pengenalan, memohon pasport, membuka akaun bank, dan pergerakannya sangat terhad, malah di dalam negara sendiri. Gajinya terpaksa dibayar melalui akaun individu lain yang dipercayai. Kini, dengan penganugerahan kewarganegaraan ini, komuniti Kristian di gerejanya ...

Aduan Sifar: Tauladan Dato' Zahri Samingon menerajui Aduan Sifar untuk MBPJ perlu dicontohi oleh Yang DIPertua Majlis-majlis lain

  Saya amat kagum dengan Datuk Bandar Petaling Jaya, Dato’ Zahri Samingon. Dalam satu perbincangan ringkas melalui WhatsApp, saya menyuarakan kebimbangan bahawa kesesakan lalu lintas yang ketara berkemungkinan berlaku di persimpangan Jalan 16/11 dan Jalan 17/1 dalam beberapa bulan akan datang. Saya baru sahaja dimaklumkan bahawa satu lagi jemaah gereja berskala besar akan berpindah ke situ pada bulan Julai, yang hampir pasti akan menambah tekanan di persimpangan yang sedia sibuk tersebut. Dalam perbualan kami menggunakan WhatsApp, saya mengemukakan beberapa cadangan dan menjelaskan satu konsep yang saya percaya beliau sudah pun faham dengan baik, iaitu Zero Complaints (Aduan Sifar). Ini merupakan satu prinsip yang kami pelajari di bawah sistem Excellence Through Quality (EQ) yang diperkenalkan oleh guru kualiti Philip Crosby. Konsep Zero Complaints ini ringkas tetapi sangat berkesan—ia bermaksud bersifat proaktif : menjangka masalah dan menyelesaikannya sebelum ia menjadi isu awa...